170 "\ ^US o Q:r C )< Donald Barthelme UNSPEAKABLE PRACTICES, UNNATURAL ACTS Fifteen mysterious, idiosyncratic explosive stones by the author of Sno\lv WhIte. Twelve of these stones first appeared in The New Yorker $4.95 James Dickey BABEL TO BYZANTIUM Poets and Poetry Now Along with W. H. Auden and Randall Jarrell, James Dickey has given us some of the sh rewdest poetic criticism we are likely to get for some time."-Chlcago Sun- Times Book Week. $5.95 John McPhee THE PINE BARRENS Drawings by James Graves. John McPhee explores a fasci nati ng wilderness in southern New Jersey. The text of this book appeared originally in The New Yorker $4.50 Thomas Whiteside TWIGGY & JUSTIN The world s top model and her young manager on their whirlwind New York visit. 14 pages of photos. The text of this book appeared originally in The New Yorker $4.50 NOW AT YOUR BOOKSTORE cause they could not help thelTIselves to I do otherwise," so to "make them guilty will only add to the misery of alJ and help no one." And he is sensitive to the anxieties of his readers, reassuring mothers that even at their best they are hound to make mistakes ("Saints may be needed in heaven, hut they rare- Iv make good parents"). Bettelheim's patIence stops, though, when he deals with psychia tnsts and psychologists whose views, in his opinion, impede cure. He is engaged in something bet- ter than a sectarian fight: the issue is treatment, not speculation, and I judge by the enemies he has chosen that his anger is constructive; his aggres- sion serves his healing purposes. There are those who see infantile autism as "an inborn impairment," and in con- sequence, he notes, their "attitudes toward treatment will be defeatist." Bettelheim himself does not rule out prena tal damage, and he recognizes that, just as the inmates of concentra- tIon camps responded variously to the same treatment, children with similar family experiences will turn out vari- ously, too. But even if more refined techniques of inquiry should establish that there is an inborn predisposition to autism, it is, Bettelheim persuasively in- sists, only certain kinds of experience that brIng it out, and therefore only certain kinds of treatment that may correct It. Annoved as Bettelheim is with some of the psychiatrists who regard infantile autism as organic and incurable, he IS ready to respect the work they have done in describing the disease. He reserves his real dislike for the be- haviorists. He quotes a recent paper on what is called "operant condition- ing": "Training was conducted six days a week, seven hours a day, with a fifteen-minute rest perIod accompany- ing each hour of training. During the training sessions the child and the adult sat facing each other, their heads about thirty cm apart. The adult physically prevented the child from leaving the training situation by holding the child's legs between his own legs. Rewards, in the form of single spoonsful of the child's meal, were delivered immedi- ately after correct responses. Punish- ment (spanking, shouting by the adult) was delivered for Inattentive, self-de- structIve, and tantrumous behavior which interfered with the training, and most of these behavIors were thereby suppressed within one week." This bru- ta] experimentation, inhuman as science and vicious as therapy, led not to speech but to what the investigators call "ver- bal ill1itation;" that is, as Bettelheim MAY I 8, I 9 8 t ln. 't b Good for graduation... good for a lifetime! - .-:- ' ::-' ., <,,^ "'. < I " 1;"" ," ,> < " et 5 ER TIO .. S -, IN aU). .. - eS. 111 0 1'0 ....UIlO 51> < q dû(t I hI 'I, ,I, (,' t The world's best book of synonyms and antonyms · Most complete · More "everyday American" words · Easiest to use! Plain $5.95 · Thumb-indexed -:; .. .... ... ". .. .... '. '. '. . .... .::..:" ::. .:. .::::. ." '. .:: ........ ,;," Ð1' < ,h , ....:.. '.' <" I :' 1, ,"">.,, < < ''' et 5 !ER TøtøS þ S IEPJ1101'i 1 .fUØO Hqht!t < ) .M w, i 'fO" I l t b ßt t * o THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY " "\0 -^"OUNTAIN *v . V I E \1\/ I;;",,,t{. i 1 :"< , "1'- 1-. n:}. HOUSE I y , WHITEFIELD N. H . ., "" ' ' , b ,... ". 4".... jOy . : '" ..'" of -, " - , , ..t .. - ',( þ ;.&l 11 ('Ið b >, · ø }-n lJ1(a .. :: 11 1 ' '\!II ... t U ' .. J II ' ""fnn; f.I" . '" -1 , , '"....,. ;J;: ,.;\ ,.'L , fit: ;.. -."" , ( # :1'1i'I"' " In the heart of the White Mountains Gracious hospitality in the tradition of the Dodge family for four generations. Congenial guests enjoy swimming, golf, tennis, shuffleboard, movies, and dancing. Cocktail Lounge Fine food. 185 rooms. Frank Schuyler Dodge, Jr., Manager SEASON BEGINS JUNE 28TH 'A 1"\."- (( )) Vel j,. '-o ;t , '" 1''O I -:1'\ '\ 1-/ 1' {',- :\1' "" featuring "-S . Veal Lemonata Dore , ,-,\1'\.\ · Fettuccine a l'Alfredo \LB ..p, ,^T\NGIAllf f- 11 405 West 75th Street KANSAS CITY '\ Takeda's i R 0 R i - _. AUTHENTIC JAPANESE STEAKS & ' SEAFOOD PREPARED ON OPEN GRILL .. . \ _ _ Individual Private Tables 60 W. 56th ST. tel. 247-3349